Henry's eighth birthday was at the end of September...We started the day SO early (which is quite normal for a birthday) as you can see from the photo of the Boy yawning in front of his gifts. It was still dark. His favourite gift was from NannyO, a hand knitted horse that he just loves. We had to wait quite a while before we could head down to the Cheesecake Shop to pick out his cake, because for some reason they don't open before dawn . Of course, he chose the largest Black Forest cake in the store and we were eating it for a few days. Then froze what was left!Once the rest of the world was awake, we made our way to the QLD museum for Gladiator School, which was supposed to be a children's lesson about what it may have been like to train as a gladiator. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best organised lesson and giving a dozen or so five and six year old boys plastic swords with very little supervision, perhaps wasn't a great idea. Poor Lily was hit a few times but she did her best to look after her little brother, protecting him from the kids who struggled with self control. It was school holidays so none of the children were home schooled and to my three, it really showed. Lily told me repeatedly she was very happy she didn't have to go to school because it was so noisy and the boys were very naughty. Not much thought went into behaviour management with only two very young (and clearly not trained in crowd control) girls teaching a class of about 20 children. All the kids should have been at least seven years old but most were about five and they should have had parents with them, but I was only one of three parents who didn't drop their kids off and leave. At least we know better for next time! It was actually the first school holiday class we have ever been to and now I know why I avoid public places during the holidays. It is just so chaotic!

Following our dangerous gladiator class, we made our way to our traditional morning tea at Max Brenner's for milkshakes and enough chocolate to choke a horse. All sword fighting was forgotten as we ate our body weight in chocolate. We all went home and as it was Henry's day, he got to tell everyone that it was time to play Minecraft! Our lovely framily (friends who are close enough to call family) came over in the afternoon to help us celebrate and we had a marshmallow and toothpick building challenge. It was a great end to what The Boy said was an awesome day.

For the birthday boy, Lily made a custom cardboard car. They spent an entire afternoon on the front deck, driving by braille and making enough noise to annoy the neighbouring magpies.

Two months after Henry's birthday, we were awakened at a ridiculous hour again for Lily's 10th birthday. As this is her first year in double figures, she gets four presents instead of one for each year since she was born. Zoe helped me pick out a couple of Minecraft books, Lily wanted a beautiful pink dress and a drone to share with her siblings. But presents were not really the focus for this birthday, for Lily it was all about the cake from the Cheesecake shop and chocolate at Max Brenner's! I showed her how I could write with chocolate on her banana bread but there was no room for bread when there was so much sweet goodness to eat! Gosh, I am glad there are only three birthdays a year so we can recover from our chocolate overdose. The rest of the day was spent binge watching some horse show on Netflix, playing Minecraft and eating marshmallows and cake. Life couldn't get any better!